Catherine's Cafe Vocation Blog

Last week I came home to find a small bird lying on the porch—it had clearly flown smack dab into the front window.  I’ve seen it before:  a hapless bird thinks there is a clear flight path due to the reflection of sky or trees instead of a pane of glass.  The last time it happened, I watched in delight as it slowly came-to and eventually flew away, having only been stunned! I picked him up, hopeful because the tiny body was still warm.  But it must have just happened and the impact had, indeed, killed the little guy.  With a heavy heart, I buried him in a tiny grave in the backyard—I absolutely adore birds.  I looked him up and learned that my little friend was called a Dark-Eyed Junco. In Matthew 6 Jesus looks to the birds of the sky to demonstrate proper trust in God.  I have often found comfort in that verse when I’m anxious over trivialities or obsessing about something that’s out-of-my-hands.  The fate of this Dark-Eyed Junco, how...

In 2008, about three years before the beginning of the conflict there, I visited Syria as part of a delegation sponsored by Catholic Relief Services.   More than one million of the four million Iraqis displaced by the US-led war in Iraq found assistance in Syria.   As Catholic women from the USA, we wanted to gather information and raise awareness about these Iraqi refugees. While we were in Damascus, we met both Christian and Muslim women who worked as partners with Catholic Relief Services.   I was especially impressed with the commitment of Sisters of the Good Shepherd there.   Now, given the escalation in the conflict, I find myself wondering about the Sisters, their co-workers and the refugees we met.   I learned recently that the Sisters (who are Syrian) have remained and still continue their work. They work courageously in Damascus and Homs. Horns is a city situated right between the town of Khan Sheikhoun, the object of the recent, deadly chem...